Page:A history of Chile.djvu/427

 CHILE OF TO-DAY 381 The master of the house may have several wives, and these with their children dwell together in apparent peace. The manner of taking a wife is similar to a custom which prevails in many barbarous countries ; the youth goes to the home of the prospective bride, and having settled with the father for her, forcibly car- ries her off. At least he and his friends appear to use force, but they are in reality suffered to take the maiden away with only a slight show of resistance. The pair then retire to the forest, and, after dwelling there to- gether for a few days, go to the husband's hut, where they live afterward as husband and wife. The women have the same custom which prevailed among the an- cient Incas, of going alone to the forest streams at the time of childbirth. When born, the child is washed in the river, wrapped carefully in its clothes and bound to a board, to which it remains fastened until it is time for it to learn to walk. The religion of the Araucanian is simple, like that of all Indians; it is, in fact, little more than a belief in immortality and in the spirits of good and evil. He believes in a Great Spirit and an Evil Spirit. The Evil Spirit must be often appeased ; in every calamity, reverses, bad weather, or bad crops, a meeting must be called under some mystical tree and an offended Deity be appeased with bowlings and liquor drinking. Wakes are held over the dead, the body being often kept some time suspended over a fire in the hut. The deceased at burial is supplied with food, clothing, weapons, a favorite horse or canoe, and other necessary accoutre- ments for the long journey to the happy regions beyond the seas. The Evil Spirit is kept out of the grave by the friends surrounding it with crossed lances, while the body is being interred. This simple religion has no creed; the wise old